Pope says Eucharistic Congresses contribute to mission and new evangelization

(November 12, 2010) According to Pope Benedict XVI one of the tasks of Eucharistic Congresses is to make a special contribution to new evangelization in traditionally Christian countries where faith life has waned because of inroads from secularism and materialism. The Pope’s remark came in his talk to participants in the plenary assembly of the Vatican’s Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, that has completed preparations for the next congress, which will take place in the Irish capital Dublin in 2012 on the theme, "The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with one another." The Pontiff recalled that the current plenary assembly fell on the 50th anniversary of the Eucharistic Congress of Munich, in his native Germany, which, he said, ushered in the concept of 'statio orbis’ with masses of people congregating. Moreover, the 2012 Dublin Congress will be the 50th congress, and it will be held likewise 50 years from the opening of Vatican II. The Pope noted that each Eucharistic Congress also contains a new evangelising impulse in a more strictly missionary sense, so much so that the binomial term 'Eucharist-mission' has become part of the guidelines suggested by the Holy See". The task of Eucharistic Congresses, especially at the current time, is also that of making a special contribution to new evangelisation… which, the Pope said, is accomplished in the school of the prayerful Church, on the basis of the liturgy and through the liturgy.